Gezicht op het monument voor het Leidens Ontzet ontworpen door Johan Coenraad Altorf 1924 - 1929

This anonymous photograph captures Johan Coenraad Altorf’s monument, marking the Relief of Leiden. I'm immediately drawn to the stark contrast; the stone against the softer, organic forms of the wreaths and foliage. It's a study in textures. The photograph itself has a tactile quality, a kind of grey scale grit; the light catches the carved faces on the monument, emphasizing their solemnity. It’s hard to ignore the wreaths – those concentric circles of leaves and ribbon. They seem to both soften and emphasize the monumentality of the stone. The juxtaposition really gets you thinking. There’s an interesting parallel to be drawn with the photographic work of someone like Eugène Atget, who also documented public monuments. But where Atget often focused on the grand scale of urban architecture, this photograph brings us into a more intimate, almost domestic space of remembrance. There's something about the starkness that really gets under your skin, and the ambiguity asks more questions than it answers.